And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
The magicians only appeared to bring up frogs by their enchantments in imitation of what had been done through Moses and Aaron, and their work was sorcery and magic aided by Satan, by the power of their god the devil working through them in counterfeit of the true work of God, while Moses and Aaron produced the frogs not by magic nor by any power of their own but by the power of the living God. The frogs came through the rod stretched over the waters and overspread the land, entering houses and bedchambers and ovens and kneading-troughs, even to the palace itself. The plague struck at the Nile revered as a god, for frogs from its waters polluted what was worshiped and turned it into a source of torment, demonstrating the supremacy of the true God and the folly of trusting idols. The magicians could increase the plague and produce the nuisance but could not stay it or remove the frogs, and God alone could remove them.
Pharaoh at first exulted over Moses and Aaron because his magicians could make the same appearance, and that copying led him to dismiss the miracles as mere magic, so his heart was hardened and his hatred of Israel increased. The counterfeit was calculated to destroy the influence of God's work through Moses, to harden Pharaoh's heart against God's power, to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron in the divine origin of their mission, and to keep Israel from release to serve God. It was also calculated to reach through the ages to destroy faith in the mighty miracles and works of Christ at His first advent to break Satan's power over the human family and deliver captives, which Moses in his work prefigured, yet God's work remained superior, for the magicians could do only a few miracles and Satan was not suffered to proceed further. When Pharaoh saw the magicians had no power to remove the plague he was somewhat humbled and began to know something of the God whom he had professed to be wholly ignorant of, asking Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord to take the frogs away. Moses answered his former haughty boasting and glorying in his magicians by asking where that glorying was now and where was their power to remove the plague, that Pharaoh might know there is none like the Lord God.
At the appointed time the living frogs were taken away, but God did not make them vanish in a moment or return to dust; He left them to die where they were and be gathered in heaps with their bodies lying in sight and their putrid remains polluting the atmosphere and corrupting the air. This was so the king and the people and all Egypt could not pronounce the removal the result of sorcery or enchantment like the work of the magicians, giving Egypt evidence that vain philosophy could not explain away or dispose of that the plague was a judgment from the God of Heaven and not magic. What happened in Egypt will happen again just before the final deliverance of the saints, when God will work powerfully for His people and modern magicians will be permitted by satanic power through human agents to imitate the work of God to deceive churches and the world and to explain away the mighty works of Jesus Christ. The magicians' imitation thus illustrates the power of darkness opposing God's work, a pattern seen in deceptive powers operating in the world and among professed churches. The widespread covering of the land by the frogs pictures the present flood of periodicals and books overspreading the land, illustrating printed matter that is commonplace, idle, enervating, unclean and degrading, whose effect intoxicates and ruins the mind and corrupts and destroys the soul.
The magicians only appeared to bring up frogs by their enchantments in imitation of what had been done through Moses and Aaron, and their work was sorcery and magic aided by Satan, by the power of their god the devil working through them in counterfeit of the true work of God, while Moses and Aaron produced the frogs not by magic nor by any power of their own but by the power of the living God. The frogs came through the rod stretched over the waters and overspread the land, entering houses and bedchambers and ovens and kneading-troughs, even to the palace itself. The plague struck at the Nile revered as a god, for frogs from its waters polluted what was worshiped and turned it into a source of torment, demonstrating the supremacy of the true God and the folly of trusting idols. The magicians could increase the plague and produce the nuisance but could not stay it or remove the frogs, and God alone could remove them.
Pharaoh at first exulted over Moses and Aaron because his magicians could make the same appearance, and that copying led him to dismiss the miracles as mere magic, so his heart was hardened and his hatred of Israel increased. The counterfeit was calculated to destroy the influence of God's work through Moses, to harden Pharaoh's heart against God's power, to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron in the divine origin of their mission, and to keep Israel from release to serve God. It was also calculated to reach through the ages to destroy faith in the mighty miracles and works of Christ at His first advent to break Satan's power over the human family and deliver captives, which Moses in his work prefigured, yet God's work remained superior, for the magicians could do only a few miracles and Satan was not suffered to proceed further. When Pharaoh saw the magicians had no power to remove the plague he was somewhat humbled and began to know something of the God whom he had professed to be wholly ignorant of, asking Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord to take the frogs away. Moses answered his former haughty boasting and glorying in his magicians by asking where that glorying was now and where was their power to remove the plague, that Pharaoh might know there is none like the Lord God.
At the appointed time the living frogs were taken away, but God did not make them vanish in a moment or return to dust; He left them to die where they were and be gathered in heaps with their bodies lying in sight and their putrid remains polluting the atmosphere and corrupting the air. This was so the king and the people and all Egypt could not pronounce the removal the result of sorcery or enchantment like the work of the magicians, giving Egypt evidence that vain philosophy could not explain away or dispose of that the plague was a judgment from the God of Heaven and not magic. What happened in Egypt will happen again just before the final deliverance of the saints, when God will work powerfully for His people and modern magicians will be permitted by satanic power through human agents to imitate the work of God to deceive churches and the world and to explain away the mighty works of Jesus Christ. The magicians' imitation thus illustrates the power of darkness opposing God's work, a pattern seen in deceptive powers operating in the world and among professed churches. The widespread covering of the land by the frogs pictures the present flood of periodicals and books overspreading the land, illustrating printed matter that is commonplace, idle, enervating, unclean and degrading, whose effect intoxicates and ruins the mind and corrupts and destroys the soul.